Group health care service providers publish directories of the physicians and other health care providers (collectively referred to as group physicians) that are members of the group. Customers that have subscribed to the group health care service providers may go to group physicians, and have the service provider pay the physician. The customers pay a fee to belong to the group health care service. The customer does not directly pay the physician, or may pay only a portion of the physician's fee. Customers need to be informed about the group physicians authorized by their group health care service.
The customers of group health care service providers generally obtain their health care from group physicians to obtain the benefits of the group health care service. Group physicians have agreed with the group health care service to, for example, charge reduced fees to customers of the group health care service, bill the group health care service directly (rather than the customer), and may provide other benefits to the customers. The customers must use approved group physicians to receive the benefits (or at least full benefits) of the plan. If the customers go to physicians who are not approved by the health care plan, then the customer may have to pay all (or a relatively-large portion) of the non-group physician's bill. These non-group physicians will not, for example, charge reduced fees or bill directly the group health care service. Accordingly, customers of group health care services desire to use group physicians, and the group health care service providers are motivated to serve their customers by directing them to group physicians.
Directing customers to group physicians has become increasingly more difficult for health care service providers. These difficulties are due, at least in part, to the large number of available group physicians; changes in the names, addresses, specialties, etc. of the group physicians, and the logistical problems associated with distributing current listings of group physicians to all customers of a group health care service provider.
Group health care service providers publish printed directories which list the group physicians authorized under the provider's health care plan. These published directories often provide lists of physicians organized by physician name, by geographic location of the physician's office, and by physician's medical specialty. A directory of group physicians may be voluminous because it includes listings by name, geographic, and specialty listings of all of the group physicians. As the number of group physicians grows in a particular health care plan, the size of the health care directory rows disproportionately because each physician may be listed three or more times in the directory such as in a name list, geographic list, and a specialty list. Accordingly, the name, address, telephone number of each physician in a health care service plan may be repeated three times in the directory of group physicians. With large health care service providers, it is common for their group physician directory to be hundreds of pages, with hundreds of physicians listed on the front and back of every page. Because directories have become voluminous, indices of physicians have also been added to the directories to make them easier to use. The indices add even more pages to the directories. Accordingly, it is common for health care service providers to publish voluminous health care provider directories that repeatedly list all of the group physicians who are a member of the group health care service plan.
Large group physician directories have become cumbersome to use, expensive to print and logistically difficult to distribute frequently enough to be current. Customers of health care service providers often are frustrated when they leaf through the hundreds of pages of a directory to find one physician located near where they live or work, and having a desired specialty. These directories may include tens or hundreds of physicians in a geographic location corresponding to a customer. Even when a customer reviews a geographic section listing for the region near the customer of the directory, the customer may find many more nearby physicians listed than the customer can reasonably investigate and select. The customer often randomly selects a nearby physician from the geographic list of nearby physicians. Presenting the customer with a lengthy list of nearby physicians often does not benefit the customer and serves no useful purpose. Moreover, an excessive number of physicians may also be published in the listing of physicians by specialty. For example, with larger specialties, such as pediatrics and general practice, a single directory may list dozens or more physicians in a given specialty. Moreover, directories tend not to arrange the listings of physician specialties by local geographic areas. Accordingly, a customer searching for physicians by specialty must scan through the entire list of physicians with that specialty to find a physician geographically nearby the customer. In short, health care plan customers have become increasingly frustrated with the large directories of group physicians that are cumbersome and unwieldy.
Voluminous directories of group physicians are also expensive to publish, print and distribute. Each health care provider service must periodically distribute directories of group physicians to each customer. As new customers join the plan, new directories must be printed and distributed to the new customers.
Group physician directories must be updated regularly to reflect the new physicians joining the health care service, and the physicians that left the service. Customers become frustrated if, upon calling a physician listed in a directory, the customer learns that the physician is no longer associated with the health care service or is not accepting new patients. If the physician is not associated with the health care service, the customer may nevertheless go to that physician and forfeit the benefits of the health care service plan. In addition, new physicians joining the health care plan will not receive many new patients coming to them from the health care service plan unless the new physician's name is published in the group physician directory. Physicians not listed in a directory cannot be found in the directory, and customers will not know that those doctors have joined their health care service plan. Accordingly, group physician directories must be routinely updated to show the current list of physicians active in the health care plan.
Updating health care directories is expensive and time consuming. The health care service provider generally maintains computerized lists of all current group physicians. These computerized lists are regularly updated as physicians change their affiliation with the health care service plan, change specialties and change office addresses.
Group health care service providers must periodically print and distribute the updated directories to the customers. Large directories with many pages are more expensive to print and distribute than would be thin directories with few pages. In addition, the cost and logistical problems associated with distributing voluminous group physician directories tends to cause health care service providers to infrequently, e.g., annually or quarterly, publish updated directories. Even the most-current directories of a health care provider may be as much as one year out of date. Accordingly, customers looking through current directories may identify physicians who are no longer associated with the health care service plan, who are no longer accepting patients, or physicians who have moved away from the offices listed in the directory. Accordingly, large health care directories for group health care services are cumbersome, expensive and often out of date.
Directories are too large to be placed in an easily-accessible location for the customers, such as near the customer's telephone. Instead, directories tend to be stored in the bottom of drawers in a home or office, or other place where they are easily forgotten. Accordingly, the large size of directories results in most directories not being stored such that it can be readily used by customers of a health care service provider.
In the past, efforts to remedy the problems associated with large health care directories have been minimally effective. For example, to reduce the cost and size of directories, health care service providers have used small print type and inexpensive paper on which to print their directories of group physicians. Such directories look and feel more like a small telephone directory, rather than a high-quality commercially-printed document. While small type and low-cost paper reduces the cost and size of the directory, the small type makes the directory harder to read. The cheap paper is often an off-gray color that is easily torn and damaged. To reduce the size of directories, health care service providers often print minimal information about group physicians, such as their name, address, telephone number and specialty. Not printed in the directories is other information, such as whether a physician is currently accepting new patients, has weekend or extended office hours, is certified by recognized medical boards, is admitted to certain hospitals and is specially trained in certain sub-specialties. Accordingly, prior attempts have not been particularly successful in improving directories of group physicians for health care service providers.